The Queensboro Bridge, officially named the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, is a cantilever bridge over the East River in New York City. Completed in 1909, it connects the Long Island City neighborhood in the borough of Queens with the East Midtown and Upper East Side neighborhoods in Manhattan, passing over Roosevelt Island. The bridge is also known as the 59th Street Bridge. It consists of five steel spans measuring 3,725 ft (1,135 m) long; including approaches, its total length is 7,449 ft (2,270 m).
Eastward view from Manhattan in 2010
Looking east from Manhattan toward Queens
Bridgemarket on Manhattan side
Bridge seen from Manhattan, c. 1908
The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary or strait in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island, with the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, from Manhattan Island, and from the Bronx on the North American mainland.
East River (foreground) and the headquarters of the United Nations in Manhattan (background) seen from Roosevelt Island in December 2006
A "bird's-eye" view of New York City from 1859; Wallabout Bay and the East River are in the foreground, the Hudson River and New York Bay in the background
The 1885 explosion
A panorama of the suspension section of the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (left) and the Hell Gate Bridge (right), as seen from Astoria Park in Queens